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Joseph Boyett, Author & Consultant
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| SOME OF THE FASCINATING PEOPLE YOU WILL MEET WHILE READING GETTING THINGS DONE IN WASHINGTON |
These are some of the heroes and villains you will meet in the pages of Getting Things Done in Washington.
The Ladies of Beekman Hill. In 1884, fifteen gentile ladies from the Beekman Hill neighborhood of New
York took on the city business leaders, the city administration, and the New York State Legislation
demanding the removal of a 30-foot high, 200-foot long pile of horse manure that was fouling the air in
their neighborhood. When city administrators told them to go home and not meddle in such matters, the
good ladies formed the Ladies Health Protective Association to clean up unsanitary conditions in the city
and later to fight for the passage of pure food and drug laws thereby causing all kinds of trouble for the
conservative establishment.
James Madison. Shy and bookish, Madison was a small man just five foot four and one hundred pounds.
Throughout his life, he was feeble and sickly with a pale skin like parchment. He spoke so softly in a
squeaky little voice people had to strain to hear him. This highly unlikely candidate for fame became the
architect of the Constitution and was responsible more than any other man for designing the government
we have today where it is so hard to get things done. Madison intended it to be.
George Washington Wiley. A tall, stocky chemist with a rough –hewn oval face, prominent nose,
slanting black eyes and ample jet black beard, Wiley gained fame by feeding poison to twelve healthy
young men in the basement of the chemistry building of the Department of Agriculture, after which he
analyzed their body waste. The nation was outraged and shocked by both Wiley’s methods and his
findings.
Upton Sinclair. Just twenty-six at the time of his rise to fame, Sinclair was a failed author and self-
described “penniless rat.” A newly converted Socialist, Sinclair set out to expose the plight of the working
man in the Chicago meat packing houses and ended up shocking the nation with his descriptions of the
disgusting and unsanitary conditions employed in meat processing. As Sinclair put it, he aimed for his
readers’ hearts and hit them in their stomachs.
Wilbur Mills. The powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Mills designed Medicare
with its strange “three-layer cake” structure of Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, and Medicaid and got it
enacted despite determined opposition from the insurance industry and medical establishment. Wilbur
Cohen, who had a major role in the design of Social Security, called Mills’ achievement the “most brilliant
move” to neutralize the opposition and secure passage of major reform that he had seen in 30 years of
legislative experience.
Senator Robert Ferdinand Wagner. Short, rotund, flawlessly groomed with a Phi Beta Kappa key
hanging from his watch chain, social, friendly, approachable, popular, cigar chain smoker with a New York
accent, humble, unassuming, sincere, no flair for showmanship, but tenacious, doggedly determined but
highly pragmatic. Wagner led an investigation of a fire in New York City in 1911 in which 146 young
immigrant workers burned to death or jumped to their death to escape the flames. Wagner was so
moved by the investigation that he became a lifelong champion of worker rights and, in particular, the
right of workers to organize and bargain for better and safer working conditions.
John D. Rockefeller. Undoubtedly the most successful of all of the robber barons, Rockefeller became in
the minds of most Americans the symbol of a grave and startling menace to social order, a bald-headed,
sly-looking and cadaverous figure, dressed in sinister black, grinning like a death’s head, and always
performing some cruel act. Stealing money from pretty widows appeared to be among his lesser
abominations.
Mrs. Rosa Parks. The prototype of the black woman who toiled hard for little reward, Mrs. Parks was
dignified with an uncommon strength of character, a serious reader, quiet but strong, loved and admired
by the local community. Mrs. Parks, tired from a long day of work, boarded a bus for home one December
day in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. When asked to give up her seat to a White passenger, Mrs. Parks
said “No” and that simple act of quiet defiance launched the Civil Rights movement and forever changed
the career of Reverend Martin Luther King.
Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milan. Two true villains, Bryant and Milan dragged a fourteen
year old black child, Emmett (Bobo) Till, from his bed in a sleepy southern town in 1955, pistol-whipped
him, shot in the head, tied a three-foot wide metal gin fan around his neck and dumped his body in a river
all because Till was rumored to have been disrespectful to Bryant’s wife. Arrested and tried for the
murder, Bryant and Milan were found innocent by an all-white jury even though they later confessed to
the crime. When Emmett’s mother, Mamie Bradley made the courageous decision to display Emmett’s
body in an open casket for all the world to see what Bryant and Milan had done to her boy the nation
rose up in outrage and the days of segregation in the South were numbered.
Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia. Six feet tall with an aristocratic bearing, large, sharp, hawk-like,
Roman nose, mouth set in a soft pleasant smile, Russell was soft spoken with a pleasant southern drawl
accept when giving a speech which he would deliver in a deep, rich, booming voice. Judicious, friendly,
dignified, a bit reserved and a life-long bachelor, Russell was a self-taught master of the rules of the
Senate. He was passionately devoted to the south. He believed that the southern way of life with its Jim
Crowe laws and forced segregation was necessary to preserve peace and harmony between the races
and was a system that worked to the benefit of Black people and White people alike. He led a southern
block of senators in defeating every attempt at civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching laws, from
1931 to 1957 when his protégé, Lyndon Johnson, turned the tables.
Lyndon Baines Johnson. The son of failed and ridiculed parents who grew up in a climate of humiliation
and fear, Johnson was determined to be President and was willing to do just about anything to obtain his
goal. Elected to the House in 1936 at the young age of twenty-six, Johnson became a senator eleven
years later after winning an election in which he stole tens of thousands of votes. After just two years in
the Senate, not having even finished his first term, Johnson secured the job of Democratic Whip. In 1953,
Johnson was elected Majority Leader, the youngest senator ever to have obtained that most powerful
position. In 1956, Johnson worked with Russell’s southern bloc to once again defeat proposed civil rights
legislation. Just one year later, he changed sides and used all of his powers as Majority Leader to secure
passage of the first piece of civil rights legislation in over 80 years.
The Ladies of Beekman Hill. In 1884, fifteen gentile ladies from the Beekman Hill neighborhood of New
York took on the city business leaders, the city administration, and the New York State Legislation
demanding the removal of a 30-foot high, 200-foot long pile of horse manure that was fouling the air in
their neighborhood. When city administrators told them to go home and not meddle in such matters, the
good ladies formed the Ladies Health Protective Association to clean up unsanitary conditions in the city
and later to fight for the passage of pure food and drug laws thereby causing all kinds of trouble for the
conservative establishment.
James Madison. Shy and bookish, Madison was a small man just five foot four and one hundred pounds.
Throughout his life, he was feeble and sickly with a pale skin like parchment. He spoke so softly in a
squeaky little voice people had to strain to hear him. This highly unlikely candidate for fame became the
architect of the Constitution and was responsible more than any other man for designing the government
we have today where it is so hard to get things done. Madison intended it to be.
George Washington Wiley. A tall, stocky chemist with a rough –hewn oval face, prominent nose,
slanting black eyes and ample jet black beard, Wiley gained fame by feeding poison to twelve healthy
young men in the basement of the chemistry building of the Department of Agriculture, after which he
analyzed their body waste. The nation was outraged and shocked by both Wiley’s methods and his
findings.
Upton Sinclair. Just twenty-six at the time of his rise to fame, Sinclair was a failed author and self-
described “penniless rat.” A newly converted Socialist, Sinclair set out to expose the plight of the working
man in the Chicago meat packing houses and ended up shocking the nation with his descriptions of the
disgusting and unsanitary conditions employed in meat processing. As Sinclair put it, he aimed for his
readers’ hearts and hit them in their stomachs.
Wilbur Mills. The powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Mills designed Medicare
with its strange “three-layer cake” structure of Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, and Medicaid and got it
enacted despite determined opposition from the insurance industry and medical establishment. Wilbur
Cohen, who had a major role in the design of Social Security, called Mills’ achievement the “most brilliant
move” to neutralize the opposition and secure passage of major reform that he had seen in 30 years of
legislative experience.
Senator Robert Ferdinand Wagner. Short, rotund, flawlessly groomed with a Phi Beta Kappa key
hanging from his watch chain, social, friendly, approachable, popular, cigar chain smoker with a New York
accent, humble, unassuming, sincere, no flair for showmanship, but tenacious, doggedly determined but
highly pragmatic. Wagner led an investigation of a fire in New York City in 1911 in which 146 young
immigrant workers burned to death or jumped to their death to escape the flames. Wagner was so
moved by the investigation that he became a lifelong champion of worker rights and, in particular, the
right of workers to organize and bargain for better and safer working conditions.
John D. Rockefeller. Undoubtedly the most successful of all of the robber barons, Rockefeller became in
the minds of most Americans the symbol of a grave and startling menace to social order, a bald-headed,
sly-looking and cadaverous figure, dressed in sinister black, grinning like a death’s head, and always
performing some cruel act. Stealing money from pretty widows appeared to be among his lesser
abominations.
Mrs. Rosa Parks. The prototype of the black woman who toiled hard for little reward, Mrs. Parks was
dignified with an uncommon strength of character, a serious reader, quiet but strong, loved and admired
by the local community. Mrs. Parks, tired from a long day of work, boarded a bus for home one December
day in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. When asked to give up her seat to a White passenger, Mrs. Parks
said “No” and that simple act of quiet defiance launched the Civil Rights movement and forever changed
the career of Reverend Martin Luther King.
Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milan. Two true villains, Bryant and Milan dragged a fourteen
year old black child, Emmett (Bobo) Till, from his bed in a sleepy southern town in 1955, pistol-whipped
him, shot in the head, tied a three-foot wide metal gin fan around his neck and dumped his body in a river
all because Till was rumored to have been disrespectful to Bryant’s wife. Arrested and tried for the
murder, Bryant and Milan were found innocent by an all-white jury even though they later confessed to
the crime. When Emmett’s mother, Mamie Bradley made the courageous decision to display Emmett’s
body in an open casket for all the world to see what Bryant and Milan had done to her boy the nation
rose up in outrage and the days of segregation in the South were numbered.
Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia. Six feet tall with an aristocratic bearing, large, sharp, hawk-like,
Roman nose, mouth set in a soft pleasant smile, Russell was soft spoken with a pleasant southern drawl
accept when giving a speech which he would deliver in a deep, rich, booming voice. Judicious, friendly,
dignified, a bit reserved and a life-long bachelor, Russell was a self-taught master of the rules of the
Senate. He was passionately devoted to the south. He believed that the southern way of life with its Jim
Crowe laws and forced segregation was necessary to preserve peace and harmony between the races
and was a system that worked to the benefit of Black people and White people alike. He led a southern
block of senators in defeating every attempt at civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching laws, from
1931 to 1957 when his protégé, Lyndon Johnson, turned the tables.
Lyndon Baines Johnson. The son of failed and ridiculed parents who grew up in a climate of humiliation
and fear, Johnson was determined to be President and was willing to do just about anything to obtain his
goal. Elected to the House in 1936 at the young age of twenty-six, Johnson became a senator eleven
years later after winning an election in which he stole tens of thousands of votes. After just two years in
the Senate, not having even finished his first term, Johnson secured the job of Democratic Whip. In 1953,
Johnson was elected Majority Leader, the youngest senator ever to have obtained that most powerful
position. In 1956, Johnson worked with Russell’s southern bloc to once again defeat proposed civil rights
legislation. Just one year later, he changed sides and used all of his powers as Majority Leader to secure
passage of the first piece of civil rights legislation in over 80 years.